#PROGRESSIVE DEATH METAL

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mikael n cat👊

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Opeth - Still Life 18/10/1999

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Covers to Blood Incantation’s Luminescent Bridge and Absolute Elsewhere, by artist Steve R. Dodd

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Opeth in the late 90's

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If you'd like, reblog to reach a wider audience

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♫ Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere ♫

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Album of the day

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Bedsore | Dreaming the Strife for Love | 29th November, 2024

Italian Progressive Death Metal

Artwork by Denis Forkas

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Chuck Schuldiner of Death at the Waffle House because fuck you

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Behemoth - Demigod 11/10/2004

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Blood Incantation Absolute Elsewhere black light poster

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Blood Incantation - Absolute Elsewhere

Blood Incantation is not the only band or the first band to make death metal progressive and spacy and cerebral, but across their now four-album discography they definitely have developed a signature style and ethos within that already niche sub-subgenre, an ethos of imaginative existential musing on the biggest fundamental questions of our species: the nature of the universe, the origin of life, the extent of the cosmos, the possibility of other life, etc. This existential speculation the band engages in is not done super self-seriously, as was exemplified by their widely lauded 2019 LP, Hidden History of the Human Race, which dabbled playfully (I hope) in the idea of humanity being placed on Earth by another species. Ancient Aliens death metal. The record even came with a little pamphlet on opening your third eye and discovering the truth of the universe and all.

I've never got the sense from the band that they're super true believers in this kind conspiratorial thinking, at least not in a committed way; I didn't get the vibe from Hidden History that they were actually trying to evangelize some flat-Earth-level type of alternative theory of human existence of whatever, even with the pamphlet. If anything, the pamphlet seemed like a tongue-in-cheek touch and an adjunctive component to the imaginative world-building the band was engaging in. It seemed more about building an immersive fantasy and stimulating grandiose speculating than about pushing some specific hairbrained conspiracy theory. That said, even most conspiracy theorists don't hold their wacky beliefs with such confidence that they dare express them publicly outside forums and comment sections, because those beliefs are more of an emotional crutch for not understanding the massive and complicated world around us and validating whatever biases they have, like what religion is functionally for most people who subscribe to one.

And somehow (ownership of new media and legacy media being gradually consolidated in the hands of a disparately wealthy few who actively thumb the scales of algorithms to favor the spread of anti-class-conscious information like right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories to prevent any type of threat to their wealth and power that working class solidarity might pose, capitalism) conspiracy theories are a real actual sociopolitical ill that we have to contend with seriously now, with actual batshit true believers like Marjorie Taylor-Greene and RFK Jr. and more than a handful who've unironically pondered "the Jewish question" now holding higher office and shaping policy in the federal government of the most economically and militarily powerful country in the world. It's so awesome that we have to take fucking "globalists starting wildfires to promote 15-minute cities" type bullshit seriously now.

Mark Bankston, the lawyer prosecuting Alex Jones for his defamation of the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, lamented frustratedly that conspiracy theories used to be fun, benign little thought experiments in the fantastical and absurd that he felt like people back in his day could engage with in good fun and not actually become so seriously sucked into, and now in the age of the internet consolidated onto a handful of social media platforms they're a weapon of anti-progressive propaganda. This has been a slow-building phenomenon, and it's not like InfoWars wasn't a major cog of the right-wing misinformation machine back in 2019. But it's so much worse now, and with the trajectory the U.S. is on in the wake of the election and the cabinet nominees being assembled, it's likely going to become an unprecedently severe problem.

All this is to say, do I think Blood Incantation (or anyone) dabbling in the mushroom-tripping vibes of space-alien existentialism with a flair of mystical thinking is worsening a serious problem of anti-intellectualism with this kind of artistry or even just doing so in bad taste? I would say no. Sure, satire is dead in an era in which it's indistinguishable from the genuine expression it satirizes, but I don't think in the context of a genre of music (death metal) that has always held ties to the cartoonish and fantastical and made very clear its fictional nature, that what Blood Incantation is doing is really normalizing or legitimizing "Jewish space laser" horseshit. Old songs with (at the time) relatively innocuous lyrics about Trump being a rich and brash public figure as more of a character archetype than anything he is now have soured more than I think Hidden History of the Human Race ever will to my ears. And that IS definitely in part due to the TYPE of conspiracy theory being toyed with, which is just the silly ancient aliens stuff that's kinda too esoteric to be tied into sociopolitical conspiracy and weaponized like holocaust denialism or something. The band stick firmly to the realm of discussions held while hot-boxing in pizza delivery vehicles after shift ends, and five years after Hidden History, they're still focused mainly on what's going on in the stars and beyond.

The cover of Absolute Elsewhere hints at a continuation of the same alien historicism, with a clearing of the crater-riddled surface of some mysterious planet with two moons in its starlit sky somehow decorated with two of the same types of pyramids of Giza. Comprised of two central compositions each divided into three tracks, it really is an album of two halves in the thematic sense though. While "The Stargate" picks up right where "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)" left off in terms of grand celestial projection, the lyrics of the album's second hemisphere are surprisingly grounded, at least in the sense that the grandiose existentialism is turned inward. It's actually surprising how direct the message of "The Message" is in the album's last 23 minutes in its humanism. The band don't break the fourth wall or anything, but even in mystical character the answers they give to the age-old questions on the meaning of life and consciousness and humanity are not the least bit cryptic. "To create." "To give." "generosity". "sow peace through deeds." "To grow beyond the animal instinct to fight." I don't know if the concerns I laid out earlier about conspiracy and anti-intellectualism taking hold of power had anything to do with their rationale or thought process for doing so, but I am glad that Blood Incantation did decide make a concrete statement at least about the purpose of the types of intergalactic thought experiments they engage in, which is not to uncover ancient secrets or expose the lizard people or any of those other harmful distractions from our obligation to support our fellow human and cherish the possibly rare and unique life present on the Earth.

As for the music... the scope of the subject matter of Absolute Elsewhere is matched in breadth with the scope of the style and composition of the instrumentals behind it. It's not just that the band employ these spacier psychedelic passages inspired by 70's prog rock between careening passages of death metal, and it's not just that they manage to tap Tangerine Dream for the second "tablet" of "The Stargate", it's the intentionality of the long-winding compositions and the way these elements are woven so thoughtfully together, with wonderful little memorable motifs of guitar and orchestral synth builds making it more than just the novelty of the combination of ingredients at play here. That said, more than any individual riff or sweet clean guitar passage, the tight symbiosis of death metal with 70's new age music and space rock is the real masterclass here that really brings the extraterrestrial introspection home. There's not really a way to easily get into the highlights of finer details of such a seamless album without it becoming tedious or spoiling, but I can at least heap massive praise on the accomplishment made here in the immersiveness into the huge scope of the subject matter here made possible by the meticulous and crisp production of each piece of the album, whose varied individual components must have been a real puzzle to mix and master.

I remember when I was hearing so much hype about Blood Incantation before Hidden History and then hearing that album and becoming a believer; I think Absolute Elsewhere could easily be that album for the unconverted because it really is a masterpiece of a progressive and grandiose compositional approach to death metal with some of the most natural integration of disparate styles ever. I love this album, and as impressive as it is from Blood Incantation, it's no surprise that they could reach even higher than Hidden History of the Human Race and that they could make so many diverse sounds work so well together. If you're not a believer all I can really say is look into it yourself, open your third eye.

9/10